Smallfry
HE's Spartacus.
- Messages
- 3,064
- Location
- Kent UK
Lost me at "dev board". I have no idea when it comes to electronics. Would like to be able to do stuff like this, but can't.
- Thread starter julianf
- Start date
sako243
Member
- Messages
- 4,443
- Location
- My mansion in Wales
@julianf what are you trying to achieve? If its something fairly basic despite the fact I don't like the Arduino itself chances are someone has already done something similar and there's a tutorial for it.
In my opinion it's probably better to get something "wrong" long term thats plug and play and easy to get you started than get something that's better suited but more of a challenge that you struggle and get put off. That's what the Arduino revolutionised and built up a massive following.
Arduinos are the simplest to get up and running. ESPs if you need wireless connectivity but at the loss of sheer number of pins without adding multiplexers etc. Nucleo for a great halfway house - you can program them the same way as an arduino just by changing the target board but by default won't have the wireless connectivity but a more "professional" grade processor. Eg. The atmega328p mentioned previously is a 2016 design I think and runs at 20MHz. The Nucleo board I mentioned above is lower power consumption, greater processing power (runs up to 180MHz) and has waaaay more hardware capabilities than the Atmel chip.
In my opinion it's probably better to get something "wrong" long term thats plug and play and easy to get you started than get something that's better suited but more of a challenge that you struggle and get put off. That's what the Arduino revolutionised and built up a massive following.
Arduinos are the simplest to get up and running. ESPs if you need wireless connectivity but at the loss of sheer number of pins without adding multiplexers etc. Nucleo for a great halfway house - you can program them the same way as an arduino just by changing the target board but by default won't have the wireless connectivity but a more "professional" grade processor. Eg. The atmega328p mentioned previously is a 2016 design I think and runs at 20MHz. The Nucleo board I mentioned above is lower power consumption, greater processing power (runs up to 180MHz) and has waaaay more hardware capabilities than the Atmel chip.
julianf
Member
- Messages
- 8,886
- Location
- devon, uk
I need to spin a stepper motor, read some analogue inputs, output some analogue outputs, and do a handful of simple digital i/o.
So, on the scale of things, not that involved. The analogue side of things should be reasonable resolution.
ajlelectronics
Forum Supporter
- Messages
- 11,174
- Location
- Gloucester, England
That is a Uno or a Nano then.
My Old Landy
Engineering Mayhem
- Messages
- 3,509
- Location
- North Lincs
I have a couple of them on the go at the moment. One with Ethernet built in and the other one without.
julianf
Member
- Messages
- 8,886
- Location
- devon, uk
Ali express is trying to sell me this -
www.aliexpress.com
Does that look ok, or does it look shifty enough that ill have issues?
Starter Kit for Arduino Uno R3 - Uno R3 Breadboard and holder Step Motor / Servo /1602 LCD / jumper Wire/ UNO R3 - AliExpress
Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com
Does that look ok, or does it look shifty enough that ill have issues?
Misterg
Member
- Messages
- 1,703
- Location
- North Wales
Probably OK, but there's a heck of a lot of stuff there and there doesn't seem to be any documentation. I'd gently steer you towards the Elegoo starter kit on Amazon that I I linked above for the same money.
But hey, you've got to start somewhere.
But hey, you've got to start somewhere.
ajlelectronics
Forum Supporter
- Messages
- 11,174
- Location
- Gloucester, England
I would strongly agree with that.
Misterg
Member
- Messages
- 1,703
- Location
- North Wales
One more thought / clarification:
The software side of all of the suggested boards is the same - you don’t have to ‘un-learn’ anything to switch boards.
Programming is done in the Arduino IDE. You tell it what board you’re using and it automatically translates the high level program you’ve written to the appropriate code and sends it to the board.
The software side of all of the suggested boards is the same - you don’t have to ‘un-learn’ anything to switch boards.
Programming is done in the Arduino IDE. You tell it what board you’re using and it automatically translates the high level program you’ve written to the appropriate code and sends it to the board.
julianf
Member
- Messages
- 8,886
- Location
- devon, uk
The reason i bookmarked the ali one is that it included the stepper, which is part of my intended project.
Im certain i could get another stepper separately, but the hope is that, if you buy a kit, you dont have to work out the exact part to then buy.
The amazon kit linked to initially was stepper-less, however, this kit does include one -
The docs for the above kit are here (revision unchecked) -
...but, i suspect you could use those docs with any kit, should you want to?
Im certain i could get another stepper separately, but the hope is that, if you buy a kit, you dont have to work out the exact part to then buy.
The amazon kit linked to initially was stepper-less, however, this kit does include one -
ELEGOO ESP-32 Super Starter Kit with Tutorial and Development Board USB-C Dual Core Microcontroller Support AP/STA/AP+STA, CP2102 Chip Compatible with Arduino IDE: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
ELEGOO ESP-32 Super Starter Kit with Tutorial and Development Board USB-C Dual Core Microcontroller Support AP/STA/AP+STA, CP2102 Chip Compatible with Arduino IDE: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
www.amazon.co.uk
The docs for the above kit are here (revision unchecked) -
...but, i suspect you could use those docs with any kit, should you want to?
As the others, some of the cheap clones can have oddness, for your first board its worth not buying one off aliexpress thats the cheapest, you want to start from a known reliable baseline to minimise the variables when something doesnt work. Once you know your way around, yes, just buy the weird chinese ones but by then you'll be able to spot if its the board at fault by substitution.
I have got different variants of arduino knocking about, I started with a uno for home automation then went to mega for more io/memory space etc, for the price of them its not a huge issue. I used nano on some project to adapt a ps3 racing wheel to a ps4 & xbox one and various other models over time. I use esp32 a lot, in both its normal and power over ethernet, its really capable for its consumption/size. If you buy commercial shelly devices for home automation, they are esp32 inside & really reliable.
If your tinkering get a dev board that has all the pins out to connectors you can wire in easy, or get a proto shield for the embeded board of your choice which is just veroboard style pcb with connectors to the arduino header pins. Then you can solder what you like to the shield and just plug it in with the headers to the arduino proper.
Just get a starter kit and dive in. Thats the hardest part of it all.
I have got different variants of arduino knocking about, I started with a uno for home automation then went to mega for more io/memory space etc, for the price of them its not a huge issue. I used nano on some project to adapt a ps3 racing wheel to a ps4 & xbox one and various other models over time. I use esp32 a lot, in both its normal and power over ethernet, its really capable for its consumption/size. If you buy commercial shelly devices for home automation, they are esp32 inside & really reliable.
If your tinkering get a dev board that has all the pins out to connectors you can wire in easy, or get a proto shield for the embeded board of your choice which is just veroboard style pcb with connectors to the arduino header pins. Then you can solder what you like to the shield and just plug it in with the headers to the arduino proper.
Just get a starter kit and dive in. Thats the hardest part of it all.
That kit has prototype breadboarding included at the bottom of the image. Theyre great for testing things because you can just move jumper wires round to make connections but not a great solution once you have things working as I'm sure you know from your instrument work.
I prefer the veroboard style ones, because I tend to just make something work, then move on to the next issue & leave it forever. The veroboard is a bit more of a long term thing. I almost always never bother making a proper pcb for things out of lazyness unless they have smd chips or memory etc that dictates doing it properly
Why oh why did we have to start this thread.
I've gone from never having considered the world of Arduino, to hmm that looks interesting, to maybe this is exactly what I need for one of my long term projects that I didn't know I needed.
So now im going to have to delve into this world of magic and spank even more of the time I haven't got on learning about something else that I didn't know I needed to know about yesterday.
Like I haven't got enough projects on the go already. Thanks a lot you lot.
I've gone from never having considered the world of Arduino, to hmm that looks interesting, to maybe this is exactly what I need for one of my long term projects that I didn't know I needed.
So now im going to have to delve into this world of magic and spank even more of the time I haven't got on learning about something else that I didn't know I needed to know about yesterday.
Like I haven't got enough projects on the go already. Thanks a lot you lot.
When your through that lot, have you considered how interesting CPLD's and FPGA's are? You can die of old age midway through falling down those rabbit holes.Why oh why did we have to start this thread.
I've gone from never having considered the world of Arduino, to hmm that looks interesting, to maybe this is exactly what I need for one of my long term projects that I didn't know I needed.
So now im going to have to delve into this world of magic and spank even more of the time I haven't got on learning about something else that I didn't know I needed to know about yesterday.
Like I haven't got enough projects on the go already. Thanks a lot you lot.
julianf
Member
- Messages
- 8,886
- Location
- devon, uk
For clarity, is the "Elegoo" in the "weird chinese ones" class, or is that accetable?
If its NOT acceptable, how do i tell what is? There was one branded "AZDelivery" mentioned prior, but that also sounds like some sort of Chinese oddity?
I totally accept that it would be a good idea to get a "known good" - im just not sure, with all the different odd names being thrown about, what is the "known good".
Again, "Elegoo" has been mentioned prior - is that on your own "accepted" list? : )
Misterg
Member
- Messages
- 1,703
- Location
- North Wales
Elegoo is reputable IMHO, As is AZ delivery (and places like Pi Hut).
Pretty much everything is Chinese, but there are ‘knock-offs’ of the knock-offs that may not be quite what is expected*. Going through a reputable supplier should insure against this.
*For example I bought some cheap LCD displays that I later found didn’t implement the ‘device select’ line. One display on its own works OK, but when I added a second, the information on both was garbled.
ajlelectronics
Forum Supporter
- Messages
- 11,174
- Location
- Gloucester, England
Yep, I buy the Elegoo triple Nano packs. Unusual to have any issue, but Amazon administer the sales and so returns are straightforward.
I’ve got the elegoo uno, no issues so far, it’s been used a bit then sat in a drawer for a number of years then got out and working fine again.
Sometimes these micros don't work as intended - or rather as the manual says they should. It could well be the manual that has a small mistake. When I designed an engine management system on a PIC I couldn't get one of the timers (or interrupt I forget now) to work. So I tried changing the setup bits, suddenly it was doing what I wanted, 100%as it should, it was the manual that was wrong.
I've always had no issues with elegoo, but mostly I use their resin or 3d printer stuff rather than arduino's so I'll have to defer to others.
I personally think theyre in the cheap chinese but got a actual brand name to protect area.
If you want gold standard, expressif make dev boards for the esp-32, as its their chip design and they publish the reference designs, you cant really go wrong using their actual hardware. You can buy 3 of the elegoo esp32 boards for 1 expressif version, but thats how it goes.
